Repairing glow plug insert threads in cylinder heads and extracting broken glow plugs.

[CitroJim]

Excellent Just seen this... It may come in very handy soon as I believe Gabriel has a bit of a duff thread on one glowplug...

[Finguy]

Excellent Just seen this... It may come in very handy soon as I believe Gabriel has a bit of a duff thread on one glowplug...

Gabriel may become friends with Time-Sert...

[CitroJim]

Excellent Just seen this... It may come in very handy soon as I believe Gabriel has a bit of a duff thread on one glowplug...

Gabriel may become friends with Time-Sert...

I think that is very likely

[Old-Guy]

A seriously impressive account.

A quick leaf through the various Glow Plug threads and I find myself wondering whether someone can point me to a post detailing how to give oneself the best possible chance of not snapping 'em in the first place, most of the posts seem to deal with the 'aftermath'.

I can't claim great experience of XUD glowplugs, BUT:
I salvaged the fairly new glowplugs from the 2.1 VSX without any real problems; PlusGas-ed several days in advance. IIRC, the one that had to be wound all the way out with a socket was slightly swollen (but not coked) at the end of the body, suspect it had been overtightened when fitted. Probably the one that has now failed!
Subsequently swapped them all into the Green Lady for: 1 completely dead, 2 with dead tips, and #4 (behind the injection pump) OK. All the old, factory original, ones came out without any problem at all, but they had been PlusGas-ed a week before (and the car used several times) then PlusGas-ed again the night before. Quick blast with an airline before removing, to blow away any debris lurking in the recesses.

I'm not a fan of using copper-grease anywhere other than on brake callipers and C-I or steel exhaust joints. The copper powder in it, that makes it a good heat-conductor, could cause galvanic corrosion especially with light alloys. So I use ordinary HMP grease anywhere hot-ish like the cylinder head. White grease for locks, hinges, suspension linkages, etc.

[Malcolm]

Great post. I've done plugs on Pug 205, 405 and Xantia without any snapping. Got job to do on Trafic and one suggestion I've read is engine at normal operating temperature. Then snap electrode and squirt in electronic cleaner, Maplins, which will cool plug significantly to 'break' the fusion on threads. Haven't tried as yet but principle sounds good.

[CitroJim]

Maybe try a can of electronics-grade freezer spray for an even better result perhaps.

[ekjdm14]

A seriously impressive account.

A quick leaf through the various Glow Plug threads and I find myself wondering whether someone can point me to a post detailing how to give oneself the best possible chance of not snapping 'em in the first place, most of the posts seem to deal with the 'aftermath'.

I don't think the XUD heads are particularly prone to snapping of plugs, certainly all the ones I've had cause to remove have done so without issue. Only swears that were said were down to the #4 being restricted for access behind the pump, as long as you use tape/blu tack or similar to hold the terminal nut into the socket there's nothing to it though